Writer/director Christopher Nolan threw us for a loop when it was revealed that his follow-up to the acclaimed award-winning atomic bomb biopic “Oppenheimer” would be a modern adaption of the classic Greek myth epic “The Odyssey” by Homer. The latest group of casting additions, according to Universal, include Himesh Patel (“Tenet,” “Station 11”), Elliot Page (“Inception”), Bill Irwin (“Interstellar”), and Samantha Morton (“The Walking Dead,” “Minority Report”).
This new group joins a cast that already boasts some high-profile Hollywood stars such as Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Charlize Theron, and Benny Safdie.
READ MORE: Christopher Nolan’s Favorite 2024 Film? Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’
In this much-beloved tale, we see Odysseus’ challenged voyage home to his kingdom of Ithaca, where he sees himself and his loyal crew face all sorts of threats. Some of those include sea beasts, sirens, a giant cyclops, and the evil sorceress Circe.
Certainly, this is new territory for Nolan as there is an assumption that “The Odyssey” will employ a greater amount of digital visual effects than you would typically see in his blockbusters, given the creature work involved with this established story. Nolan is very well known for doing as many in-camera practical effects as humanly possible, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that he’ll try to keep to that without sacrificing scale.
You might remember there was a time that Nolan was attached to direct “Troy” for Warner Bros., which was an adaptation of “The Illiad” starring Brad Pitt and was being primed for a sequel with “Game of Thrones” actor Sean Bean established as that incarnation of Odysseus expected to go on his own fantastical quest to get home from the Trojan War. However, Nolan would instead be offered “Batman Begins” when director Wolfgang Petersen ended up taking the reigns of “Troy,” and the filmmaker would focus on knocking out his “Dark Knight” trilogy. Perhaps this was an itch he was hellbent on scratching after naming Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” one of his favorite films of 2024 ahead of tackling his own swords and sandals adventure pic.
Most recently, Ralph Fiennes (currently nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Conclave”) dipped his toes back in the world of Greek mythology by playing a much older version of Odysseus in “The Return.”
Universal Pictures, where Nolan landed after his dust-up with Warners over the handling of “Tenet” and other COVID-era releases, is set to release the movie on July 17, 2026.
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